QR says repairs to the railway line will reduce rail freight travel times between Mount Isa and Townsville by up to 50 minutes.
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The time savings have been achieved during an 11-week recovery operation to restore the line after multiple sections washed away in floodwaters during the monsoonal weather in February.
Transport and Main Roads Minister Mark Bailey said the restoration works performed by a dedicated 400-person QR taskforce had upgraded sections of the line previously under speed restrictions.
"QR made the most of the line's closure to deliver large scale maintenance activities such as rerailing and reconditioning works ahead of schedule while crews had unlimited access," Mr Bailey said. "This means QR can now remove previous speed and axle load restrictions on upgraded sections along the line, delivering a significant betterment for this critical North West supply chain connecting industry to the Port of Townsville,
"Run times between Townsville and Mount Isa will be reduced by up to 50 minutes. This is a great achievement by QR, and means industry will benefit along the entire corridor."
Final track inspections and preparations were underway ahead of the line re-opening to freight on Monday 29 April in what was a 160,000 hours of labour operation by QR.
More than 200 sites across 300km required repair, including 38 bridge abutments, the replacement of 47-kilometres of rail and 120,000 tonnes of ballast.
QR CEO Nick Easy said the focus was now talking to freight partners to resume services and facilitate extra runs to move product delayed by the extended closure.
"We anticipate the first freight train to depart Townsville will be a Pacific National service," Mr Easy said.
"The train will go to Mount Isa to be loaded with mineral concentrate from 5am Monday, with the North West supply chain gradually returning to schedule over the coming weeks.
"The first passenger service, an outbound Inlander service, is scheduled to depart Townsville on 11 May."
Mr Bailey said the $100 million pledged by Federal Labor to support further maintenance and upgrades on the line would go a long way to ensuring the corridor was better equipped to deal with severe weather.
"The Palaszczuk Government is already investing more than $380 million in the Mount Isa line over the next five years, and Bill Shorten's pledge will help to increase the line's efficiency and capacity, and make it more resilient when extreme weather events occur in the future," he said.
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